HA confusion

Started by coatmaker618, November 25, 2024, 04:58:41 AM

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November 25, 2024, 04:58:41 AM Last Edit: December 13, 2024, 05:59:45 PM by coatmaker618
I have two physical OPNSense boxes I'm using as my primary router, and either one of them performs fine.  However I have a few problems when I try to run them together in High Availability:

  • [maybe solved, see edit #1 below]The network has multiple VLANs (or OPT networks if you prefer), and OPNsense is the DHCP server & DNS server for these networks.  When both boxes are connected I am seeing DHCP conflicts, DNS conflicts, etc. How do I get them to share the info rather than both try to act as the primary router on the network? Is there a config or setting I'm missing somewhere?
  • I am on a residential network, so I only have 1 WAN IP & 1 physical RJ45 port for my WAN connection.  How do I keep two (or more) nodes of a HA "cluster"? Do I need to physically move a cable?  Can I create a 2nd route through the "other" routers? Any suggestions are welcome!


PS: Is "cluster" even the right word for HA OPNSense? It seems like it's more of a train, per this post:
https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=30225.msg146197#msg146197

Edit #1:
I think the DHCP conflicts was due to some combo of services not getting synced and the backup node not getting updated (possibly breaking sync?) due to it not having a direct internet connection (see point #2 above).  At the moment, the DHCP conflicts seem to be gone so I'm counting that as a win. For anyone who tries this in the future, double check all this. Also, the newer sync is SO MUCH BETTER than the old one & actually gives some insight.

I have the same question, confusion about DHCP, it conflicts when both are online at the same time, or should the secondary be configured differently?